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Has Trump’s Iran War Just Become Officially Illegal?
In late February, Donald Trump launched a war of choice against Iran without authorization from Congress or the United Nations Security Council. Defenders of the war pointed to the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which lets a president deploy forces for up to 60 days. Well, that 60-day clock runs out this week. And in the New York Times this morning, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, says the war will “clearly be illegal” the moment the deadline passes. He’s calling on federal courts to step in and shut it down. So far, House Democrats have forced repeated war powers votes and lost every one, with Jared Golden of Maine joining nearly all Republicans on April 16th to kill the latest by a single vote. The Iran war has now killed more than 3,400 people. At least 2,100 of them are civilians, including 503 women, 413 children, 91 health workers, and 9 journalists. If Congress won’t act and courts won’t act, Chemerinsky warns, the Constitution itself becomes a dead letter. And we hand a single man the power to start any war he wants, anywhere on Earth, anytime he chooses.
Is Bernie Sanders About to Force the Democrats to Clean House?
Bernie Sanders is leading a Senate revolt. Joined by Jeff Merkley, Tina Smith, Elizabeth Warren, Peter Welch, and Chris Van Hollen, Bernie sent a letter Sunday to Chuck Schumer and DNC Chair Ken Martin demanding that every Democratic candidate pledge to reject billionaire and corporate super PAC money in primaries. The numbers are staggering. Crypto-aligned groups are preparing to spend 200 million dollars this cycle. AIPAC already controls more than 90 million. The AI industry has dropped 185 million this year alone. In Illinois, outside groups have spent over 50 million in recent Democratic primaries, with AIPAC secretly funneling cash through shell groups. In Maine, Republican billionaires Stephen Schwarzman and Alex Karp just dumped 2 million to torpedo Senate front-runner Graham Platner. Bernie’s message is simple. If Democrats want to be honest about money in politics, they’ve got to clean up their own house. Now.
White House Blames Democrats and Journalists for Assassination Attempt
Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old California teacher and engineer who charged the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday with a shotgun, a handgun, and several knives, was charged this morning in federal court with attempting to assassinate the president. And immediately, the White House went on offense. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who’d been on maternity leave, came back to claim a “left-wing cult of hatred” inspired the attack. She said the suspect’s manifesto is “indistinguishable” from criticism of Trump online. She named Hakeem Jeffries and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro by name. And Trump, on 60 Minutes, attacked CBS journalist Norah O’Donnell for daring to read the suspect’s writings on air, calling her “a disgrace.” So instead of asking how a man with three weapons walked through a hotel checkpoint feet from the president, the White House is busy blaming Democrats and reporters. That’s not security policy. That’s intimidation.
Is Germany Now Mocking Trump on the World Stage?
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, no progressive, looked directly at Trump’s Iran war today and tore it apart. Speaking to high school students in North Rhine-Westphalia, Merz said the United States is being “humiliated” by Iran and is sleepwalking into another Afghanistan, another Iraq. “The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected,” he said, “and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy.” Then this. Quote, “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership.” That’s the leader of America’s closest European ally calling the President of the United States a global embarrassment. And the facts back him up. Trump just cancelled Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff’s trip to Islamabad after talks collapsed. The Iranian Red Crescent has submitted war crimes evidence to the International Criminal Court. And Merz says the war is bleeding Germany’s economy too. The empire isn’t just losing the war. It’s losing the room.
Trump Demands Disney Fire Jimmy Kimmel
Hours before Cole Allen attacked the Correspondents’ Dinner, Jimmy Kimmel did a bit on his show showing a fake video of Melania and Barron Trump in his audience. He looked at the fake Melania and said, quote, “you have a glow like an expectant widow.” It was a joke. A dark one, sure. But a joke. Today, Trump took to Truth Social and demanded ABC and Disney fire Kimmel immediately. He called the bit “shocking” and “beyond the pale.” Melania herself piled on, implying Kimmel should be canned. Now think about this. The president of the United States, the most powerful man on Earth, is using the bully pulpit to try to take a comedian off the air for telling a joke. That’s not grief. That’s not concern about violence. That’s what authoritarians do. They use tragedy to silence the people who mock them.
Electric Vehicles Cross the Tipping Point
And finally, some actual good news. The Financial Times is reporting that global electric vehicle adoption has crossed the tipping point in China, much of Southeast Asia, and Europe. Researchers from the University of Exeter and the World Bank say the global EV fleet is doubling every 18 months. China’s is doubling every year. EVs hit a quarter of all new car sales worldwide in 2025. In Singapore, they’re 56 percent. In Thailand, 28. Indonesia, 21. Uruguay, 30. EU EV sales jumped 49 percent year-over-year in March, driven in part by Trump’s Iran war pushing oil prices through the roof. Battery costs have fallen 90 percent since 2010. UBS now predicts EVs will hit 58 percent of new car sales globally by 2035. Experts call the trend “self-sustaining” and “irreversible.” Meanwhile, here in the United States, Trump killed the federal EV tax credit last September, and EV sales fell 28 percent in the first quarter. So while the rest of the world races into the future, America is being yanked backward by an oil-soaked political class. The fossil fuel age is ending. Just not for us.
And that’s the way it is, Today Monday, April 27, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
